I once got a five word e-mail from Ebert when I responded to something he wrote. He asked if anyone knew ANYONE who voted for the National Board of Review awards, because he and Gene Siskel (who had passed away a couple of years before this) had never been able to find out anything about the organization -- whose awards are mysteriously seen as harbingers of the Oscars -- beyond a very murky press release or two.

I responded with a not very brief and not-terribly-flattering personal reminiscence about a guy I had known who had bragged about being on the Board, and Ebert's response was: "A picture begins to take shape."

Another time, I guess I submitted a question for the Answer man that he just didn't want to use and I got the slightly more cryptic: "Does not seem to fit."

Well that is kinda funny but it still doesn't negate the girl's point: Ebert had meant the 'loading dock' remark as a bit of a downput, in terms of the sets looking cheap, while the point was that the ship IS cheap and IS a loading dock. That was the whole idea. So in pointing out that that was basically a bit of a dumb complaint to make, she's actually right. Might as well complain about the cheapness of sets making a barnyard look like a barnyard. What else is it supposed to look like?

Hey I don't care, his review was very positive and I couldn't care less about that remark, but the girl who wrote that letter still had a point and that joke he makes basically masks the fact that he's not really answering it.